Blogging Is So Much Easier in the Winter (Or Is That Just Me?)

When it comes to NaNoWriMo--and I swear this isn't off-topic--I've heard few complaints from participants. But the complaint I hear often is that it occurs during November, which is, for many people, apparently, an extremely busy time of the year. I, personally, and very pleased that November is the NaNoWriMo month, as that works perfectly with when I actually feel capable of spewing out 50,000 words within several weeks. While many people seem to wish the event was a summer ordeal, I cannot be more relieved that it isn't.

Because after two years of blogging here at Amara's Eden, I've learned something now that I didn't know about myself before: when the weather starts getting cold, my creativity and urgency gets kicked into high gear. I want to do things. I want to play all those games, read all those books, and see all those shows and movies that I've been ignoring for the past six months. I want to get back to that writing project I put aside during the summer, and I want to blog about everything that pops into my head. I want to tackle old projects, and I want to start new ones. And for a few glorious weeks in November and December, I actually get some shit done before S.A.D.-like symptoms start setting in around February and March.

On the other hand, I had always assumed that when the summer rolls around, I'll want to do things. I'll feel better. There's warmth and there's sun, and everyone just kind of seems happier when the summer rolls around. Except I live in Maryland, and that is not what happens in the summer. Maryland summers aren't hot, per se. It's rare to hit the triple digits, and while we do make it to the nineties far more than I'd like to be the case, it's bearable. But Maryland summers are really fucking humid. Maryland turns an eighty degree day into a ninety degree day with humidity alone; it's horrible, especially if you, like myself, don't have access to air conditioning in your own home. (I've survived by literally sitting in front of a fan for nearly twenty-four hours a day.) It just feels disgusting to live in Maryland during the summer without air conditioning, and it honestly me truly horrified to think of what it must be like to live in a rainforest climate that would make Maryland's humidity seem like the Gobi desert.

So in spite of the hopes that bloom in my head when the winter months have lost their novelty and left me completely sick of being cold, I always feel too shitty in the summer to have any drive to do anything.

That's where I'm going with this. My blogging schedule completely revolves around the climate, and that's kind of hilarious. I am inspired by the chill in the air during November and December, and I actually get things done. But when I really should be doing things over the summer, my drive all but completely fizzles out. Just look at the archives for the blog, and you'll see exactly what I mean. I get inspired around the end of October (which lead me to create the blog in the first place in 2012), but by the time June rolls around, my posting drops to nearly nothing. It's a trend I probably never would have picked up on if blogging hadn't offered me such an obvious way to track my day-to-day enthusiasm towards one of my hobbies.

Then, of course, there's New Year's. New Year's kind of plays off of my December inspiration. December brings up a slew of typical posts: best and worst this-and-that of the year, reflections on how you measured up this year versus your goals, and promises for how you're going to be better the next year. And while everyone jokes about how it's easy to keep a New Year's resolution for those first few days, weeks, or months, it's easy for me to keep them for at least the rest of January. But once January ends, it become a game of perseverance. This year, I did pretty amazing by my standards, honestly. I posted every day for the first few months of the year... but when the weather got warm, I got lazy, and there went my New Year's resolution.

I guess that's what sums my schedule up: I'm a reasonable blogger in the winter... and in the summer, I am lazy, grumpy, and completely over this entire blogging thing.

So what about you? Do you find that you approach blogging differently during different parts of the year? Or does your blogging perseverance rely on something else entirely? Let me know in the comments below!

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